Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Judy Murray: The penny needs to drop, public toilets are more crucial than ever

© PAA public toilet is closed as the UK continues in lockdown
A public toilet is closed as the UK continues in lockdown

I left my home town for the first time in months last week. I drove through to Glasgow to attend a funeral, and after the service I stopped to grab a takeaway coffee with a few friends.

We took our cappuccinos to a nearby park, so we could have a socially-distanced catch up, and it was nice to feel normal for a little while – even if it was difficult and sad circumstances which brought us together.

However, every time I took a sip of my coffee, I was reminded that I still had to drive more than an hour down the motorway to get home. With no chance of visiting a loo between the park and my front door, needless to say, I left my coffee unfinished.

As lockdown has started to ease, and we’ve been able to exercise outdoors for longer or visit friends and family, I’m sure many people have found themselves in a similar situation. In fact, I wasn’t at all surprised to learn there has been a huge surge in demand for the “Shewee”, a funnel-like plastic gadget which enables women to relieve themselves while standing up.

According to its manufacturers, sales of the “female urination device” have increased by 700% since lockdown began, as more and more people become concerned about a lack of access to public toilets.

There has been debate around the lack of clean, free restrooms for a good few years now, but living in lockdown has once again brought the issue into sharp focus. If you’re out and about, it’s no longer simply a case of popping into a cafe or bar to use the facilities, and as parks, gardens and tourist attractions get set to reopen in the coming weeks, many people will surely be put off leaving the house if there’s nowhere to, well, “go”.

Many people with medical conditions may need to use public toilets when out and about and the issue is more pressing for women and children, who can’t simply find the nearest bush to hide behind.

A few years ago, I sat on the Scottish Rugby Union advisory board to help open up the game up to get more women involved in both playing, delivering and watching the sport, and one of the first things I said needed to be improved was the toilet facilities at the main stadiums.

If you want to encourage women to come and sit through a rugby match, they need to be able to go to the loo and not miss 20 minutes because they have been standing in a queue, and the same now applies to playing sport outdoors during quarantine.

Perhaps while extra hygiene measures are still in place, and public cubicles remain closed, there will be a resurgence in the traditional pissoir that you still see in some European countries.

With only a hole in the ground and a foot pedal for flushing, users really only come into contact with the door handles, so it could be a good way of limiting the spread of germs while still providing sanitary facilities.

Let’s hope the penny drops but one thing’s for sure, we’ll all need to start taking our leg workouts more seriously. Squatting to use a seat-less loo isn’t exactly a walk in the park…